GOP feud boils over before Election Day

Just four months before the election, a long-simmering political feud among Campbell County Republicans has boiled over in a very public way.

Kidwell
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Story Highlights

Small group of activist Republicans seeks to oust Campbell GOP chairman and entire party leadership

Ouster unlikely to succeed, but it drags GOP’s internal problems into the public eye four months before Election Day

Feud stems from so-called “red star incident” at 2012 party convention; split is between tea party wing and party leadership

A long-simmering political feud among Campbell County Republicans has boiled over in a very public way – and the timing couldn’t be worse, what with an election just four months away.

Several party members have publicly accused party Chairman Jeff Kidwell of 20 instances of “malfeasance, nonfeasance and misfeasance” and accused the nine-person executive committee of “acting in concert with or giving tacit approval to” his actions. They’ve called for a meeting later this month to vote to oust Kidwell and the executive committee.

In a letter signed by six Republicans, Kidwell is accused of directing party funds to his 2012 campaign for sheriff, using the party to further his political career and letting key duties like fundraising and communications lapse.

Kidwell said they’re “fabrications” by a small group of people still upset over the 2012 party reorganization.

“The whole thing is a fabrication,” he said. “They want to get their name in the paper, and they want to make the party look bad. They were enemies of the party then, and they’re enemies of the party now.”

The ouster is unlikely to succeed: Party rules don’t allow rank-and-file members to overthrow party leaders in such a way because the Campbell GOP is set up as an executive committee, not county committee, form of governance, said Troy Sheldon, chairman of the 4th Congressional District GOP.

“It’s a small minority trying to affect change – and trying to do it inappropriately, based on the bylaws,” Sheldon said. “Unfortunately, politics are messy; whether it’s Republicans or Democrats, you often have a difference of opinion, even within the same ideology.”

If Campbell Republicans want to change the party’s leadership, he said, they’ll have to wait until the next party elections in 2016.

The letter drags the party’s internal problems out into the open, though, when Republicans should be closing ranks to protect the seats they hold and work together to gain new ones in November.

It boils down to a dispute between the activist tea party wing of the Campbell GOP and the elected volunteers who have controlled the party since 2008.

As chairman, Kidwell has increased GOP voter registration and improved the party’s online presence (though its website has not been updated in at least a year). He held the two wings of the party together through the 2010 election, when the GOP picked up several countywide offices. Then came the “red star incident.”

At the party convention in March 2012, seven of the 167 Republicans who showed up found their name tags marked with red stars to indicate they weren’t eligible to be elected to party offices. Kidwell said the red stars were given to those who donated to or otherwise supported non-Republicans, such as backing a local Libertarian for state treasurer in 2011. But the people who received red stars believed they were ostracized for supporting the tea party movement.

“Things came to a head back when they did the red star event, and it’s just been getting worse since then,” said Larry Robinson, the former Campbell County Tea Party president who signed the anti-Kidwell letter.

Bitter feelings also linger from the nomination process in the 2012 special election for sheriff. Several Republicans sought the party’s nomination in July, including current and former police officers. The executive committee picked Kidwell, a longtime elected constable. His critics complained the process was rigged, but party leaders deny anything improper occurred.

The most serious complaint in the letter deals with that special election: Kidwell is accused of “diverting” $10,000 in party funds to his campaign – but he said nothing improper occurred there, either. Jim Bunning, the former U.S. representative and senator, had previously given the party $30,000, and Kidwell said the executive committee voted to make a big contribution to his race because no Republican had been elected sheriff in at least 40 years.

Kidwell won the special election, but earlier this year he lost to fellow Republican Mike Jansen in the primary election.

(Worth noting: Bunning was Kidwell’s campaign manager in 2012 and now serves on the party’s executive committee.)

But the letter-writers also complain that the party does not provide financial support to other Republicans running for office.

Kidwell’s response is that the party does not routinely cut checks to individual campaigns; instead, it pays for fliers and get-out-the-vote activities for the entire GOP slate.

However, campaign finance records show that the party has given to candidates as recently as 2010. In 2012, though, only Kidwell’s campaign rated a contribution. The party did not financially support the re-election of Circuit Court Clerk Taunya Nolan Jack, who faced a Democratic opponent. Jack is among those who signed the letter seeking Kidwell’s ouster.

The party meeting and ouster vote is set for July 29, ensuring the GOP’s dirty laundry will remain in the public eye a while longer. And at least one group must be watching with glee: Campbell County Democrats, who are united behind their slate of 16 candidates for state and county offices.

“Our candidates are really on the line,” said Republican Tim Nolan, who was involved in the drafting of the anti-Kidwell letter and is Jack’s father. “Ken Rechtin is really coming out strong, Rene Heinrich is coming out strong. Jason Steffen – he’s nothing to fool with, either. All three of those, I think, really have legitimate chances, and those guys (the Democrats) have their act together. And here we are stuck with (Kidwell).” ⬛